“The Citizen Preparedness Corps gives residents the tools and resources to prepare for any type of disaster or emergency, respond accordingly and recover as quickly as possible to pre-disaster conditions,” according to the state’s website on the classes. “The course provides an introduction to responding to a natural or human-caused disaster. Participants are advised on how to properly develop family emergency plans and stock up on emergency supplies.”

The class is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, and is expected to last for about two hours. The class is being held at the Tupper Lake Emergency Services Department at 21 Santa Clara Ave.

The class will be led by trainers from the state National Guard, as well as officials at the county and local levels. One of those will be Carl Steffen, the longtime emergency manager for the town and village of Tupper Lake.

Steffen said the course is largely delivered as a lecture but did not rule out the possibility of participation from willing participants in the audience. He also noted that there would be ample time for participants to ask questions to both the National Guard trainers at the state level, as well as local officials for questions tailored to the Tri-Lakes area.

A section of state Route 28, east of downtown Long Lake, sits destroyed on the morning of July 11, 2023. (Enterprise photo — Arthur Maiorella)

More important than ever

The state began the program in February 2014, and Steffen said it has never been more important.

“It used to be if an emergency happens but now it’s when an emergency happens,” he said. Flooding events have become more common across the Adirondacks in recent years, according to observations collected by the National Weather Service.

2024 also broke the record for the most confirmed tornadoes across New York. The current tally for the year stands at 32, according to the NWS. The previous record of 25 was set in 1992. While the North Country has been largely spared from this, one tornado occurred on Aug. 11 in Pikes Corner, approximately 5 miles southwest of Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County.

Two days later, the NWS’s Burlington Office, which serves Franklin, Essex, Clinton and St. Lawrence counties, confirmed the tornado as an EF-0, with peak winds of 65 mph. According to NWS Burlington, the tornado was brief, lasting roughly 10 minutes. Given its brevity, relative weakness and remote location, no damage to life or property was observed.

Open to anyone

Steffen said that while the class is being held in Tupper Lake, the information is broad enough to be of use to those interested in attending from surrounding communities.

“Anything that’s there will be useful for not just Tupper Lake. It’s open to really anyone who wishes to attend. The information is general enough so it does cover the (wider North Country) area,” he said.

The opportunity to attend an official emergency preparation class held in the Tri-Lakes region is rare. Currently, there are no other classes scheduled for the North Country through November.

“They aren’t offered up here very frequently. They had one other one that I know of in St. Lawrence County this past spring, but it’s probably seven or eight years ago that they last came to Tupper Lake,” Steffen said.

While the event is free, registration is required to attend, and the class is capped at 60 attendees, according to Steffen. People can sign up at https://tinyurl.com/ytjnvpbk. Every family that attends will receive an emergency preparation kit for free.

Meet your instructors

Steffen said the National Guard instructors are immensely qualified — traveling all across the state teaching these classes to various communities, on almost a daily basis.

For his part, Steffen spent much of his professional career serving as an emergency response coordinator with the state.

“I am a certified emergency manager with the state. I worked for 33 years with New York state. I was based out of Albany and provided emergency management for one of the largest state agencies: the Office of Mental Health,” he said.

Throughout his career, Steffen has seen it all.

“I assisted with the response to 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, other plane crashes across the state over the years, floods, fires, winter storms and other natural and man-made disaster events,” he said.

Steffen said the information is crucial to know.

“It’s very important. People sometimes have the misconception that in an emergency, everybody will be right there to help. We (in emergency management) find that you have to be prepared to take care of yourself for a period of time before help can get there,” he said.

Steffen said in the case of a natural or man-made disaster, this is especially the case.

“Once your local emergency services are overwhelmed, as is often the case in these disasters, it takes more time for mutual aid from other departments to get there to help. You need to sustain yourself or your family for a period of time,” he said.

Originally from central New York, Steffen has called Tupper Lake home for the past 38 years. Among a plethora of other roles, he served as the chief of the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department.

More information on the program can be found at www.prepare.ny.gov.